I’ve been following the One Laptop Per Child program since I saw it featured on 60 Minutes. I ordered a laptop on December 8, 2007 through the Give 1, Get 1 (G1G1) program, and I haven’t been as fortunate as some, as I haven’t received mine yet.

I’ve also been following the news surrounding Intel’s involvement with the program, the program’s disenchantment with Intel, and then finally, Intel leaving the program altogether.

All this has made me nervous as to whether or not the program was going to survive long enough so that I could see this wondrous laptop that was featured on TV that night. I feel like I was won over by a sophisticated infomercial. The laptop is supposed to be a great boon to open source, with the ability to read (and edit) running source code, weatherproof, able to be powered by hand when no electricity is available, and its operating system was to be so innovative so as to not need explanation to children.

Now if I could only get my hands on it! I got a Paypal receipt on December 8, and e-mailed asking for status twice, latest on January 13th. I called in on January 16th, as I had seen on the OLPC forums that the program had asked all those who had participated in G1G1 to wait until January 15th to call in. I got my order arranged, and since then I’ve been getting steady e-mails with updates, although the updates are of the, “we’re ordering more, we’ll get back to you” variety.

I just got the following e-mail this morning:

Please accept my apologies for the delay in receiving your XO laptop. Give One Get One was such a phenomenal success that we over-taxed our order processing and payment systems. Demand exceeded supply.
Additional XO laptops are being built now and will be delivered in 45 to 60 days. If you wish to reconsider your contribution in the face of this delay, we will issue a refund to you. We have set up a dedicated phone line for these requests. The number is 1-800-883-8102.

In the meanwhile, please know that laptops are in the process of going to Mongolia, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti as part of the “give one” side of the equation. Fortunately, OLPC’s mission of getting laptops to the children in these countries has not been delayed. In Mongolia , the children are already enjoying themselves and learning new things with their XO laptops. Please see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ulaanbaatar.
Eliminating poverty through learning is gaining wider acceptance thanks to support like yours.

Sincerely,

Nicholas Negroponte
Chairman
OLPC Foundation

At this point, a refund wouldn’t be worth all the time I waited. I’ll continue to wait patiently; unlike some, I do understand the growing pains of a young foundation who far underestimated the demand of the G1G1 program. I’m in Negroponte’s corner here, I really do think he’s trying to do something amazing. Or am I just naive? What do you think?

Update (February 1st, 2008 @ 12:41pm EST): MomWonder’s Dad ordered a G1G1 laptop, and had it shipped to our house. It showed up yesterday! I saw the package, was like yeah! Then I saw that it was his - OH NOES. I’m so jealous.